Remember Me?

Hi, blogging friends!  It has been so long since I've updated my blog or commented on many of yours for that matter.  I feel like I've just gone non-stop these last few months.  I'm on vacation this week, so since it's storming and we're stuck inside I thought there was no better time to get caught up and to catch you up :)

What's new?  Well, some furniture.  We got family room and morning room furniture.  Sticking with our theme of "custom made" - you know the brand new house and all, of course we ended up getting special order furniture!  We got a sectional, chair, and ottoman for the family room.  We've gone back and forth for months on whether or not to get a sectional.  We were worried that if we got a sectional we wouldn't have enough freedom to rearrange the room.  But after thinking about it, we don't really have the option of doing that any way.  Our TV needs to stay where it is, so we thought we'd just go for it and get the sectional.  There's no picture, but I'll be sure to post one in 6 weeks when it comes in.

We were able to agree on morning room furniture more easily.  Here's what we got:  A table, six chairs, 3 stools for the breakfast bar, 2 for the island, and a server for our blank wall in the morning room.

I'm really happy with it.  It is supposed to come in around the first week of August. 

So, we're slowly making progress.  They finally got moving on the outside of the house.  Grass was planted a few weeks ago.  It's doing great in some spots, but not so great in others.  We've been going back and forth with our PM.  The top soil they used was really bad.  We have some big spots with piles of sand - no soil at all.  The back yard is barely coming in.  Overall, I'm not impressed with the job Ryan did with our yard.  Hopefully, I'll be happy in the end.  They finally did the rest of the outside painting, but that also needs some fixing.

On a positive note, our neighbors are fantastic!  We've become good friends with them and we're loving the neighborhood.

Thanks for still reading!  I'm off to get caught up on what's going on with you.

Common Bond

Hi everyone!  It's been fun catching up on the blogs.  Everyone's houses are coming along great!  I don't have much to report.  Since we actually had a few days without rain (hard to believe in Pittsburgh!) I've had the chance to hang out with neighbors a bit more.  Several of us got together last night and it was great!  Just what I've been hoping for.  I am so happy with our neighborhood.  Everyone is so nice, friendly, and welcoming. Our common bond?  We are all getting really annoyed with the lack of work to the outside of our houses.  Our yards haven't been graded.  Grass hasn't been planted.  Our driveways aren't finished.  There's still painting to be done.  Ugh...  The grass is the worst though.  Our dog now refuses to use the hay we put out to do his business.  He's sick of not having a yard, too!  I just really want our house to be complete.  I'm am so envious of all of you that already have grass.  Enjoy it for me!

My Fault

WARNING TO THE MEN READING THIS - This post contains information that may make you uncomfortable.  This is a ladies issue...

So I told you about the water in our basement because of the backed up drain.  I, of course, was convinced this was faulty construction on Ryan's part.  Well, it turns out I'm to blame.  It seems that my "flushable" ladies products were the culprit.  REALLY?!?!?!  I've never had this issue in any of my residences in over 15 years, but this house that has been standing for two months?  Clogged.  Nice.  I'm still not convinced it was totally my fault - I mean every woman I've asked is a flusher.  My husband and I went round and round about this - me telling him he was totally ridiculous, him finding articles on the internet trying to convince me.  Well, all it took was a little camera and viola....the argument was won by my husband. In addition, the plumber noted that two lids that are on the lines outside were switched when the landscapers were working.  He said this may have contributed to the problem because of a lack of pressure, or a vacuum malfunction thingy.  I'm not totally clear on it, but if takes a tiny bit of the blame off of me, then I'll take it.  We spent the entire night last night sanitizing the basement.  Oh, what fun.  That was the first time that I spent any time in the basement, so that's a positive.

The other good news?  Our PM responded promptly.  When it was pushed off to Ryan Service, they responded promptly.  That was a good feeling.  We also discovered how uneven the floors in our basement are.  Nice big puddles in one location with no way to the drain, and other parts completely clear.  Something to bring up at our 10 month.  The water never reached the sump pump, so it wasn't activated.  I'm so glad we didn't have the basement finished.  It wouldn't have been pretty.

So use my story as a warning to my fellow flushers :)

Backed Up

Hi everyone!  I am so out of the loop and have lots of catching up to do.  I haven't been able to read your blogs very much these last couple of weeks :(  First, congrats to 2011!  I haven't read her blog recently but I know she closed last week.  And congrats to the rest of you on your progress.  I'm hoping to have some time this week to read what's been going on with everyone.

So...we have another issue.  When I went down to the basement this morning, I was greeted by a nice big pool of water.  At first we couldn't figure out what was going on - it was too much water to have seeped in from outside.  Then we thought maybe something was leaking.  We just used the water in the garage for the first time yesterday and thought maybe that was the culprit.  But, it seems like it is our drain.  All backed up.  Yuck.  We have a call into our PM so we'll see what happens tomorrow.  Apparently, the same thing happened to our next door neighbor TWICE!  Ugh... Other than that, they've started our landscaping.  No grass yet, but we do have some pretty cheap mulch and some little bushes.  I think we'll probably spruce that up a bit.

Speaking of being backed up...I feel like I am behind in just about every aspect of my life.  Work,  friendships, cleaning, working on the house even getting thank you cards mailed out!  I feel like I'm drowning.   There's not enough hours in the day.  I'm just very overwhelmed right now.  But how?  I don't have kids.  How am I going to do it when I do? My hat goes off to you working moms.  I have no clue how you do it.  Happy Mother's Day.

25% off at Macy's

I know Macy's isn't the cheapest store, but they do have some decent home stuff.  Below is a friends and family coupon code for 25% off and it doesn't carry as many exclusions as Macy's coupons typically do.  I went into Macy's tonight and was VERY tempted to get some things for the house, but all I walked out with was a bridal shower gift.  My husband would be proud.

Code for Macys.com:  MACYSFF

A Couple New Additions

I'm so thankful I have a day off today.  There is just way to much to do.  I'm in charge of a big Family Literacy event at school in two weeks, so that will pretty much consume my life for the next 14 days.  So, I'm thinking we'll do pretty much nothing to the house. 
Last weekend my husband installed the new faucet for the powder room.  Nothing fancy. but definitely a step up from what we had...

Before

After

Thanks to Thrifty Amy's info about the Pier 1 credit card and the points you accumulate, I decided to go ahead and get the bench I've been wanting for the mudroom.  It's the perfect size.  My husband likes that we didn't have to mount anything on the wall, but he thinks it looks like it should belong in grandma's house.  I disagree and am very happy with it.  I have other ideas for this room, all I have to do is put them into action.  It's pretty sad that my mudroom will likely be the first finished room in my house.

The driveway is almost complete and the sidewalk looks great.  They still have some painting to do around the windows and the pillar on the front stoop.  I cannot wait until we get grass!

There were workers here yesterday and they'll be back today to finish some items from the 30 day inspection.  New kitchen counters are installed, electrical issues are resolved, a couple cabinet problems are fixed.  All that's left is fixing the uneven floors in the kitchen and morning room.  That should be interesting.

Oh, I almost forgot.  We had heavy winds the other night and our shingles were flapping in the wind and we even lost a few.  Our PM said it's because they were put on in the winter and the sun hasn't had time to really "melt" (for lack of a better word) them on yet. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.  They were flapping like crazy!

The good news is that they were up on a ladder the next day fixing them.  So far we've been really happy with our repairs but I wonder how long it will take once there's not contractors in the plan every day - which won't be too long.  There's only 4 lots left!

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'm hosting my first holiday on Sunday :)

Randomness

Now I understand why bloggers post less and less after they move into their new house.  I have been so busy.  In fact after having a little meltdown last weekend about not having enough time to do all the things I need to do I made a new rule for myself - no blogs or facebook until right before I go to bed.  On one hand this has been good because I've been able to accomplish a lot more - school work, house work, exercising, etc...  but on the other hand I'm way behind on these blogs I love so much.  I have so much catching up to do.  While I'm usually able to read most posts, I don't always get to comment.  I know that I won't stay awake long so I want to make sure I at least read everything.  Plus, there are so many blogs now it takes a lot longer to get through.  But I feel like I'm really out of the loop, so I may need to adjust my new rule.

The sidewalk is finished and looks great.  They graded the driveway and lawn today.  The driveway should be in next week.  I am beyond excited about this.  It will be such a relief to have it in.  I'll post pictures once the driveway is in.

Blinds.  Nothing too exciting, so I won't bore you with countless pictures.  Just an idea of how they look in the morning room, dining room and a bedroom.

This is the oddball window in the big bedroom.  It's growing on me.  When it's actually time to decorate this room, we'll see how much I like it.

I finally found candlesticks I like for the fireplace.  I bought them last week at Pier 1, but thanks to Thrifty Amy, I bought another set and returned them and saved $10 bucks.  Thanks for the tip, Amy!

My husband and I have a running joke.  Until we get more to dress up the mantel (including a mirror) I just have flowers and a wedding picture.  My husband thinks the dog should be front and center so whenever he can he switches the wedding picture and the picture of the dog.  I told him the dog picture might soon disappear completely :)

We got a new towel bar, toilet paper holder, toilet handle, and faucet for the powder room to replace the horrid faucet we have.  My husband has all installed but the faucet.  That's this weekend's project.


We're at a standstill for furniture.  After measuring we realized that the furniture we wanted for the family room is too big for the space we have, so we're back to the drawing board.  We looked again at Sheely's last night but there wasn't anything I loved.  So we'll hopefully look at a few other places this weekend.  I know I'm being picky, but if I don't love something I don't want to buy it.

The trip wasn't a total waste though, we've got some ideas for the morning room.  We found a line, Canadel, where you can customize your pieces from the type of table, to the type of legs, to the type of chair, seat color, body color etc...  I like things to match and this would allow us to get bar stools for the breakfast bar and island that match the morning room table chairs.  Plus there's a lot of options for a buffet.  It's perfect....for the person who can easily make decisions.  But for me, it's pretty much torture.  I'd love to do something light and bright maybe antique white, but my husband isn't up for that.  We looked at doing all cherry and still may, but we're afraid it will be too dark next to the cherry wood in the kitchen.  After playing around on the website last night, here's what I'm thinking.  This way we bring in the cherry and also keep it light.

Morning Room Chair




We're debating between  a round, oval or rectangle table.




Breakfast bar bar stools.




Kitchen island bar stool.

 I don't know.  I think I need to think about it for a few days.  If you're interested in the line just go to canadel.com

Since the weather has been so nice this week, I've had the chance to meet some more neighbors.  So far everyone seems great.  I'm trying really hard to remember names, but I haven't been totally successful :(  I'm so happy to be living here!